Current weather

Two Columbia County Food Lion grocery stores that closed nearly a year ago might not stay vacant much longer.

County Development Services Director Richard Harmon confirmed his department has reviewed plans to bring a Big Lots to the Home Depot shopping center on North Belair and Washington Road and a Walmart Neighborhood Market to The Village at Furys Ferry.

A new economic incentive for portions of Martinez could prove integral in making the area a hub of commercial activity once again.

The Development Authority of Columbia County received word in October that state tax credits will be offered to businesses that choose to locate along a commercial corridor off Bobby Jones Expressway and Washington Road where older, dilapidated buildings coexist with newer construction.

An Evans faith-based health clinic reached many milestones in 2012, including a decade of service to the community.

FaithCare free clinic is an outreach ministry of Wesley United Methodist Church in Evans. Volunteer physicians have been providing medical care for uninsured residents of Columbia County since it opened in September 2002.

“I’m so proud,” said Dr. Al Lightsey, one of the clinic’s founding physicians and a former medical director. “I think it certainly hasn’t fixed the healthcare system, but it has made a difference in some individuals’ lives.”

After more than 50 years in the television industry, nine of them in Columbia County as the general manager of WFXG-Fox 54, Barry Barth is calling it a day.

Barth, 68, got his start working the switchboard at a station in his hometown of South Bend, Ind., when he was 15. His career has taken him to Buffalo, N.Y., Dayton, Ohio, Miami and Jacksonville, Fla., Hartford, Conn., Spokane, Wash., and Fresno, Calif.

Having their art exhibited in galleries and at special events isn’t new for Angelika Selman-Bondar and her 18-year-old daughter, Susanna Bondar.

Still, the Artists’ Guild of Columbia County’s recent Art After Dark event at the Church of the Holy Comforter in Martinez represented a first for the pair: exhibiting their work together at a single event.

“Not everybody gets to do a show with their daughter,” said Selman-Bondar, who teaches art at Grovetown High School and Euchee Creek Elementary School.

The Augusta Council of Garden Clubs will hold four floral-design classes beginning Jan. 19.

The Saturday classes – slated for Jan. 19, Feb. 2, Feb. 16 and March 2 – will be held from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Georgia State Floral Distributors on Washington Road in Augusta. Participants can browse and purchase from Georgia State Floral Distributors during the sessions, according to ACGC President Judy Kirkland.

Poinsettias fill homes with holiday cheer, but sadly, when the Christmas decorations are packed away, the plants tend to go.

Some folks have no problem sending these festive beauties directly to the trash can. Others treat them like a regular houseplant until the colorful leaves drop off in spring. But a few will hold onto their poinsettias with visions of reblooming them. It isn’t easy, but the reward is a beautiful poinsettia for next Christmas season.